{"id":44958,"date":"2025-09-05T08:56:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T08:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/44958\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T08:56:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T08:56:26","slug":"trans-woman-feared-vigilante-violence-after-writer-graham-linehans-social-media-posts-court-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/44958\/","title":{"rendered":"Trans woman feared \u2018vigilante violence\u2019 after writer Graham Linehan\u2019s social media posts, court told"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Father Ted\u2019 creator said she was a \u2018domestic terrorist\u2019 in relation to release of insects at meeting of gay, lesbian and bisexual people\n<\/p>\n

Sophia Brooks (18) said she was worried she could be \u201cstabbed\u201d or \u201cbeaten up\u201d after Linehan called her a \u201cdomestic terrorist\u201d and \u201csociopath\u201d on X.<\/p>\n

The 57-year-old Father Ted creator is on trial at Westminster Magistrates Court. He denies a charge of harassing trans woman Ms Brooks on social media between October 11-27 last year and also denied a charge of criminal damage of her mobile phone, to the value of \u00a3369 (\u20ac425), on October 19, 2024.<\/p>\n

Prosecuting, Julia Faure Walker told the court yesterday Ms Brooks came to Linehan\u2019s attention after he \u201clinked\u201d her to a protest at a LGB Alliance conference on October 11.<\/p>\n

She said there was \u201cno evidence\u201d Ms Brooks was involved in an incident where some girls released insects inside the building.<\/p>\n

Linehan then posted online a number of times about the complainant after the conference, the court heard.<\/p>\n

In a post to the Metropolitan Police X account on October 12, he wrote: \u201cI believe these three men all had knowledge of the recent homophobic attack on a meeting of gay, lesbian and bisexual people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill they take seriously this example of domestic terrorism, in which I believe some silly children were doing the bidding of some very dangerous men.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Do you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On October 13, Linehan posted online that the activist was \u201cbehind countless episodes of harassment of women and gay men both online and off\u201d, adding \u201che is a deeply disturbed sociopath and I believe he had some involvement in Friday\u2019s homophobic attack\u201d.<\/p>\n

Giving evidence, Ms Brooks said she was left feeling \u201cworried for her safety\u201d after Linehan posted a picture of her to his half a million followers.<\/p>\n

Ms Brooks and Linehan later met outside the Battle of Ideas conference in Westminster on October 19.<\/p>\n

Video footage played to the court appeared to show Linehan grabbing Ms Brooks\u2019s phone after she asked him: \u201cDo you think it is acceptable to call teenagers domestic terrorists?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Graham<\/p>\n

Graham Linehan leaves Westminster Magistrates\u2019 Court, London, during his trial over an alleged harassment of a transgender woman. Photo: PA<\/p>\n

Today’s News in 90 Seconds – September 5th 2025 <\/p>\n

In a separate video shown to the court, he appeared to call her a \u201csissy porn-watching scumbag\u201d, and in a third, Ms Brooks appeared to pose with \u00adLinehan as he appeared to call her a \u201cdisgusting incel\u201d. In the video, Ms Brooks could be seen to reply: \u201cYou\u2019re the incel, you\u2019re divorced.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked by Sarah Vine KC, defending, what she feared from the posts, Ms Brooks said: \u201cPossibly someone \u00adacting as a vigilante and stabbing me on the street or beating me up.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then replayed the video of Ms Brooks posing with Linehan to the court and suggested she seemed \u201cpleased with herself\u201d when telling Linehan he was an incel. Ms Brooks replied: \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if she had been \u201cquite enjoying\u201d it, rather than being \u201calarmed or distressed\u201d, Ms Brooks insisted she had been alarmed by the posts.<\/p>\n

Ms Vine questioned Ms Brooks over a number of X accounts she used. In one post, the court heard Ms Brooks had tweeted in response to a picture of gender critical activist Posie Parker having soup thrown over her.<\/p>\n

In the post, she responded to a reply expressing relief it was not acid, writing: \u201cI really wish it was though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Vine asked Ms Brooks if this was a \u201clike for like\u201d situation compared with Linehan\u2019s posts referencing her. Ms Brooks denied this, saying her account had around 30 followers, compared to Linehan\u2019s 500,000.<\/p>\n

\n

We know who you are and we are cataloguing everything that you do<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She called it a \u201csingle, off-hand comment\u201d compared to \u201ca month of abuse\u201d.<\/p>\n

The court was also shown video \u00adfootage of a video Ms Brooks appeared in during which she addressed \u201cTerfs\u201d (trans exclusionary radical feminists).<\/p>\n

In the video, she could be heard to say: \u201cWe know who you are and we are cataloguing everything that you do. You will pay, I never lose…good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Brooks said it was a \u201cjoke\u201d in reference to a phrase used by Ms Parker, whose real name is Kellie-Jay Nyishie Keen-Minshull. \u201cKJK always says \u2018I never lose\u2019,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I thought I would add, \u2018you will pay, I never lose\u2019. It was a joke.\u201d She added it \u201cwas not a threat\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judge Briony Clarke was forced to issue a warning to the public gallery after audible laughter on several \u00adoccasions. The trial continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018Father Ted\u2019 creator said she was a \u2018domestic terrorist\u2019 in relation to release of insects at meeting of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67,4709],"class_list":{"0":"post-44958","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-latestnews","15":"tag-main-news","16":"tag-mainnews","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-topstories","20":"tag-world","21":"tag-world-news","22":"tag-worldnews","23":"tag-x-formerly-twitter"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}